Admired by Haydn, and preferred over Mozart for the position of music director to Archduke Ferdinand d'Este, governor of Lombardy, on the recommendation of Maria Theresa, Václav Pichl wrote over 900 works, including 30 string quartets. The present set of three quartets, Op. 13, published in Berlin in 1788, was dedicated to Carl von Dittersdorf, who in 1770 had secured his "best friend" Pichl a valuable position in Vienna that he held until his departure for the archduke's court in 1777.

These stylish and skilfully contrasted works exploit all four instruments equally (even the viola is allocated elaborate solo passages) and offer an attractive alternative to the standard Viennese works of this period. Haydn himself requested that Pichl's "new quartets" be copied out for performance in Esterháza in 1780.